[JimDabell]

The white paper they are discussing [0] includes multiple cities around the world:

> Las Vegas can reach 97% of the way to 1 GW constant supply and Muscat in Oman – 99%, using 6 GW solar panels and 17 GWh battery. Even cloudier cities like Birmingham [UK] can get 62% of the way to a constant supply every hour of every day across the year.

[0] https://ember-energy.org/latest-insights/solar-electricity-e...

[bluefirebrand]

62% is a long way from 97%

I'm all for not letting perfect being the enemy of good, and I used to work in solar. I'm very in favor of it. I just really think people need to be realistic about this stuff

[hvb2]

I think the real way to read it is: Renewables are at a point where, combined with battery storage, they can supply 100% if we chose to while being competitive on cost.

The Birmingham case is a perfect example where solar might not be the source, wind is

[bluefirebrand]

Yeah

I do think that the batteries side of the equation is handwaved away too much though

Batteries at this scale are going to be awful for the environment once we start to have to decommission and dispose of them

There are no perfect solutions unfortunately

[epistasis]

What is the harm, specifically? Is it greater or less than the harm for steel? How?

I have never gotten a clear explanation of this from someone who expresses concern for batteries causing environmental damage. They aren't harmful like car batteries, for example. And the people expressing concern about batteries never seem to express concern for the far greater use of other minerals in their daily life.

[hvb2]

Batteries can be recycled though as the degradation is mostly on the kathode anode pair AFAIK

[bluefirebrand]

My understanding is they aren't really recycled into the same type or size of battery, so it's still pretty lossy.

Could be wrong though